So you read all about the success of other individuals. You got lost in the world of tips, tricks, and courses for success. None of them worked for you. At the end of it you were still left wondering, “what is it that I don’t have?” You’re still looking now. You’ve exhausted your edition of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. You’ve been through hours of listening to those motivational coaches say, “never give up, and you’ll get what you want!” You’ve done it all, and nothing is working. You’re sick of it, right? You want something that you can start doing RIGHT NOW. You don’t want the “never give up” speech again. So here is the reality. Success is something within you. It’s your daily habits. Your morning routines. What you spend your time doing. It’s not these tips and tricks that others try to sell you, it’s the way you view the world! Don’t give up hope. Here’s 10 habits that you can adopt that will form a successful mind.
Start to Accept Changes
Change is the one constant you can rely on in life. When all else fails you, you can bet that change will be lurking around the corner. With this in mind, wouldn’t it be a smart thing to finally squash that fear of change all together? Successful people are able to adapt to change. They need to be. If one idea fails, which many will, the successful mind can take that and adapt to the changes presented by the situation. But how do you accept change? The way you always have, you just get on with it. Know that it’s there, it’s happening all the time, and don’t let it catch you off-guard. Plan for it, expect it, embrace it, and use it to your advantage.
Start to Set Goals
Not just any goals, but achievable goals. You know when you draw up a check-list, and you tick each individual little job off it? Think back to the feeling of each of those ticks. Think about how relieving it is. Think about how empowered and motivated you feel for the next job. It’s a pretty damn good feeling, right? Then staring at that completed list at the end of the day, knowing that you’ve accomplished everything you wanted to do for that day. Make your goals that size. Reach your goals every day. Allow that momentum to build, and empower you, every single day! (But don’t forget to schedule your empty check-list days too.) Also, a study done by Gail Matthews, PhD at Dominican University, seems to support the idea that writing goals is scientifically proven to make us more successful!
Start to Commit to Things
Get rid of those commitment fears. If you want to be successful, you have to commit to things. A new job, a new partner, a new exercise regime, a new magazine subscription, whatever it is — you need to commit! If you can’t commit when things are going well, you’re going to abandon ship and run a mile the moment you hit some turbulence. This won’t lead you to success. It can’t. You’re not sticking around long enough to reach it. There’s no real easy way to do this. Though weighing up the cost of the commitment versus the rewards can often be a good start. Regardless, however you decide to face up to it, the end result is the same. You start committing.
Start to Identify Your Purpose
A purpose is the fast-track to success. With your purpose in mind, much like the achievable goals, all that hard work seems a lot more appealing to overcome. When things get rough you can just sit there and say, “Why are you doing this again?” and your purpose will always serve as the motivation you need. So how do you find your purpose? Answer these simple questions (brutal honesty required):
Who are you? What do you want from life? What is it you have that others will benefit from receiving? How are you going to get there?
Start to Believe in You and Your Goals
It’s timeless advice really. You’ve heard it a million times before, but this time you need to let it sink in. If you want to be successful, you have to believe in yourself. Don’t believe in yourself because it’s your destiny to be successful. Don’t believe in yourself because you’ve got a foolproof plan. Don’t believe in yourself because you really want it. These are fairy tales spun to us, with no real serving purpose whatsoever. Believe in yourself because you know that you’re going to put in the work. Believe in yourself because you know, as long you’re still breathing by tomorrow, that you will continue to work towards where you want to be. Believe in yourself because you know you’ll overcome the next hurdle you’re presented with. With this level of self-belief, anything is achievable. You just have to keep going until you get there.
Start to Cultivate Patience
Another timeless piece of advice, inexcusable to leave out of anything discussing success. You need to have patience. Yes some things can happen overnight, but these are often the smaller successes. It doesn’t matter what it is you want to achieve, knowing how to wait will be a part of it. A successful blog doesn’t launch with thousands of subscribers overnight. A powerful novel doesn’t get written in a day. A superstar fitness model doesn’t miraculously gain his or her physique in 24 hours. Success takes time. You just have to keep taking every step you can towards it.
Start to Identify Your Downfalls (Then Do Something about Them)
No successful mind is successful if it cannot see where it falls short. It is only in the identification of the shortcoming that it could ever have the potential to be addressed. Many people are their own worst critic though, so it’s not hard to see what needs work. The hard part is putting in the work. Knowing you’re lazy and doing something about the laziness are two very different things. To be successful you would have to identify that laziness, and then adopt a proactive solution to it. Just saying, “yeah I’m lazy,” isn’t going to get the work done. The last, and maybe the hardest, part to it all is showing yourself compassion. You’re not going to get it absolutely perfect first try. That’s okay. You’ve got a lot of time left. As long as you’re actually doing something about your downfalls, other than complaining, you’re probably ahead of most.
Start to Identify the Growth in ‘Failure’
Do you know what almost every successful person has in common? They’ve failed. Dr. Seuss was rejected by 27 publishers. Stephen King threw his career-launching manuscript in the trash, though luckily his wife pulled it out. Walt Disney was told he had no imagination. Did any of these give up? Well okay, Stephen King did for a moment, but the point is they failed and didn’t give up. Instead here they are, names known by almost every household. These failures only ever spurred them on to become incredibly successful people. So see your ‘failure,’ learn from it, grow from it, and come back better. The only thing stopping you from trying again is you.
Start to Practice Emotional Creativity
Emotional creativity, better known as empathy, is the backbone of success. To be able to relate, to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, is what makes you a successful human being. There’s various reasons why, such as:
To be able to serve people what it is they want, which is the key to many successful businesses and careers, you have to relate to their situation. If you lack the emotional creativity to empathize with their situation, you won’t connect well with them. If you’re on your pursuit for success and you’re going to have to climb over some people’s heads, how are you going to stay human doing that? By relating to them. Are you willing to crush other people to get where you want to be? Can you live with that decision? You’ll only know by empathizing. Successful people, at least many of them, are likable. They’re likable because you can relate to them. You can relate because they’re creative enough, emotionally, to appeal to you!
Plus, just as a general benefit, empathy makes you a better human being overall. Putting yourself in someone’s situation is going to lead to better behavior, from you, when it comes to dealing with said people. If you’re not sold on empathy, just read this Psychology Today piece.
Start to Meditate
With the madness of success comes the desperate need for peace. As a successful person, you’ll likely be making stressful decisions every day. If you can’t manage that stress, it’ll dominate you. Luckily, meditation is here for successful you. With empirically proven health benefits, as outlined in this JAMA article, it’ll help reduce the stress and anxiety of being successful! So take a couple of minutes out of your day, and really let go. Hit the pause button on everything. It’ll all still be there when you come back, but find time to really just be with yourself. Otherwise that stress could eat you alive. So there it is. Now all you’ve got to do is put them into practice. Are you ready for success? Let us know your top tips for the successful mind below. Featured photo credit: Malcolm Gladwell via thepolitic.org
